As the Roman Empire started its rise towards dominating much of Europe — across the Atlantic Ocean and beyond the perilous Andes mountains were mysterious civilizations who elongated their skulls.

While it may be tempting to consider these cultures as primitive compared to those under the subjugation of Rome, it would be a mistake, dailystar.co.uk reported.

The Paracas people living on the coast of what is now Peru between 1000 BCE and 100 CE developed an incredibly advanced civilization complete with irrigation — matching those found in Europe at the time — and imaginative art.

But, in addition to these incredible achievements were bizarre practices that we today would consider sinister.

The Paracas people — and many other cultures around them — practiced the ritual of elongating skulls.

Deformation of the skull usually began shortly after birth and would continue for a period of years until the desired effect had occurred.

It is believed the practice began as a way to distinguish between those of noble birth and members belonging to the lower social classes.

Further evidence for this can be seen among the royalty of the Inca Empire, which stretched from Colombia to Chile before it was destroyed by gold-hungry Spanish conquistadors, who also had elongated skulls.

Researcher and author Brien Foester, who has examined the so-called ‘hidden cultures’ for decades has examined numerous skulls.

He : “Cranial deformation via the head binding of a new-born baby has been practiced in many cultures to distinguish the nobles from the common people.

Foester shockingly claims that some children even appeared to be born with the deformations.

He continued: “The most startling examples are found in Peru and Bolivia, where specimens exist from 2,000-plus years ago — indicating they were in fact born with elongated heads.

“Most academics scoff at this idea, but medical professionals confirm that is indeed the case, history books must be re-written and in fact are being done now.”

One of the children believed to have been born with the condition is Cinnamon – a 13-year-old child who was discovered by researchers.

What is more shocking is that her DNA allegedly does not match those of other cultures nearby, potentially indicating the Paracas people migrated to South America later than other civilizations.

Foester said: “Cinnamon does not look like an indigenous person living in the coast of Peru, and the DNA testing of 19 Paracas skulls indicates that in fact these people migrated from Eurasia some years ago.”

Further developments regarding the Paracas people was discovered this year when a drone found geoglyps — huge drawings etched into the Earth — in Palpa province.

This means they would predate the famous Nazca lines by thousands of years.